By Tommy Acosta
Sedona, AZ –Were it not for the excellent reporting by Red Rock News Managing Editor Christopher Fox and RRN reporter Tim Perry, I might have never known about the City’s plan to place automated license plate reading surveillance cameras throughout Sedona.
According to RRN, the decision to install a total of 12 of these cameras—which not only read license plates but provide a plethora of information about drivers, their names, where they live, etc.—was made by city staff with no public input or council approval.
One would think that such a decision would require the public and council’s involvement, but it appears the decision and installation of these cameras was done in a clandestine fashion where even the city’s official newspaper was kept out of the loop.
These highly sophisticated cameras are connected to a nationwide database that allows the authorities—local, state, and federal—to check if the vehicles are stolen or are associated with criminal activities, according to RNN.
Now, there are some who would argue that if one is not guilty of a crime or using their vehicle for nefarious activity, there is nothing to worry about. But what if your plate is scanned and the AI system that records and searches everything discovers you failed to pay a traffic ticket or—let’s say even worse—missed a few alimony payments? Does that mean the vehicle is red-flagged and the cops can come to your home and arrest you?
What if the camera misreads the number on the plate and you happen to be Hispanic, and the vehicle is registered to an undocumented immigrant? Will ICE be called on you and the next second you’re on a plane to El Salvador?
Reportedly, these cameras can observe and record your every move when driving around Sedona. They can tell the authorities where you’re going, where you’re coming from, how many trips you make to go shopping, where you hang out with friends, what bars you go to, what times during the day or night you usually go out, where you go to eat, how many times you went to the dispensary that day or week.
Can they tell if you forgot to renew your license or registration?
Will the cops patrolling the community be told to head straight to your door to arrest or fine you?
Okay. We can safely say that Sedona is an extremely low-crime area, and we can thank our police for that.
And maybe the tourists and visitors will come and go, but it will be we locals that will be most scrutinized.
The All-Seeing Eye of Providence will be on us all day and even at night, as one would assume the system has night vision as well.
But here is the most disturbing part of this campaign to monitor the driving habits of locals and visitors alike:
Who gave the city staff the right to do this without community or council approval?
Apparently, the decision required no council approval or discussion or community input.
Sedona is an extremely low-crime community, and we can thank our police and the type of people who live here for that.
And it could be argued that the ALPRs might enhance the policing of the community.
But the public should have been informed, and the community media should have been told as soon as the concept was brought to the table.
And the decision to approve the project should have been left to the city council.
But when all is considered, this most definitely feels like an overstep of government and a giant step toward authoritarian control—not just of Sedona, but the country as well.
As RNN Managing Editor Christopher Fox so succinctly put it in his RNN opinion piece of June 20th, 2025, about the ALPRs:
“They are pervasive mass surveillance that indiscriminately captures and stores data on hundreds or thousands of vehicles every minute; creates vast databases of motorists’ locations, regardless of whether they are criminal suspects; and pools data into regional systems so governments can monitor their citizens without warrants or due process. This data can disclose visits to friends, lovers, doctors’ offices, political gatherings, protests, places of worship, abortion clinics, substance abuse support groups or other sensitive locations, painting an intimate portrait of an individual’s private life, associations and habits — all on the speculative premise that a person might commit a crime in the future. Sci-fi author Philip K. Dick coined a term for this in 1956: ‘Pre-Crime.’”
Good catch RRN. Thanks for not letting this slip by.